This association was further validated in the cohort study of normotensive population, in which the haplotype G-T of rs11841945 and rs9573096 in KLF5 was associated with an increased risk of developing HT with an adjusted OR (95% CI) of 1.338 (1.106–1.62), compared with the G-C haplotype (Supplementary Table 4). Here, KLF5 is linked to hematocrit.